Legacy
by turbomagnus
Summary: Ivy finally understands why Carmen turned to crime. Off-Screen Character Death Warning.


Disclaimer: I don't own Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego, I make no money from it, I make no claims to it.

Author's Note: Warning, character death. I say again, character death. If you choose to continue past this point, don't say you weren't warned.

* * *

"Legacy"  
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

* * *

On the museum rooftop, the thief turned towards the detective, pulled the brim of the hat they wore down low and smiled, "Catch me if you can..."

* * *

Ivy looked at the hat sitting on her desk with wistful frustration. After a chase so long, Carmen had finally been caught up with. Not by ACME, not by the police, not even by any rival villian... but brought down by pneumonia contracted during an attempted theft of Dorothy's ruby slippers from the Smithsonian. Law enforcement across the globe was celebrating after Carmen's funeral earlier that day except for three; Zack and the Chief were somewhere around ACME Headquarters co-miserating the loss of a friend, mentor-figure and honored enemy, and Ivy herself was here in her room, staring at the worn red fedora that had been Carmen's trademark for so many years on both sides of the law.

Carmen had only been buried that day and there was already talk about cutting back ACME's funding and manpower from those on high, with extra pressure coming from 'social psychologists' about the age of the majority of ACME's detectives, pushing that many of them were too young and thus ACME was violating child labor laws, uncaring that most ACME detectives were either orphans or children of parents who worked for ACME in some other aspect and the simple fact that ACME putting them to catching crooks helped keep any of them from becoming crooks - in theory, anyway.

Ivy looked at the hat sittiing on her desk as though talking to the woman who had worn it, "Is this what it was like when you brought in Doctor Maelstrom?"

"No, they don't," Ivy sighed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ivy paused as if hearing an answer, "How am I supposed to do that?"

Ivy crossed to her desk, snatching up the red fedora and turning to her mirror as she raised it up.

"What am I doing?" the redhead asked herself aloud as she sat the hat carefully on her head, then gave the brim a quick tug to bring it down over her eye.

Despite the physical differences, the position of the hat itself was enough that in her mind's eye, her reflection in the mirror morphed into Carmen's own and she could almost hear the mistress thief's voice.

'Sometimes the only right thing to do is something wrong, Detective.'

* * *

"Gelese Law Offices."

"I know that, Lee, that's why I called. It's Ivy..."

Gelese dropped the phone in surprise and scrambled to pick it up, missing the last name, "Oh, hello Detective, you caught me... er, that is to say that you're in luck, I was just getting ready to leave for the day. To what do I owe the call?"

"Did Carmen ever change her will?"

"I'm afraid the will-reading isn't for another two days. You'll just have to wait until then, Detective."

"Or I could convince the bar association to take a closer look into your record. Just tell me about the will, Gelese."

"Uh, yes, well, Ms. Sandiego's will... I'm sorry, but her current will still lists your brother and yourself as her sole heirs and beneficiaries of her entire estate, less certain funds that go in perpetuity to the upkeep and maintence of the 'Chief' computer program, including but not limited to the organization known as 'V.I.L.E.' I apologise if that's not what you wanted to hear, Detective, but those are... were my client's wishes."

"On the contrary, Lee, that's exactly what I wanted to hear."

On the other side of the conversation, Lee Gelese felt an involuntary shudder go through him at the too-familar tone used to speak those words, the tone of a cat on a high object looking down at the mouse on the floor and thinking 'it's playtime'.

A tone that until that moment he had always associated with Carmen Sandiego.

* * *

"Ivy picked... a bad time... to go on vacation," Zack complained as he ran across the rooftop.

Two days after Carmen's funeral, his sister had cashed in her accumulated leave time and disappeared, she hadn't been seen or bothered to contact anyone in almost a month. He couldn't blame her, despite the law between them, she had always been closer to Carmen than he had, looking up to her like the older sister she never had. He had actually been thinking of taking some time off himself when the call had come in; for the second time in two months, someone was trying to steal the Ruby Slippers from the Smithsonian. Thus the reason for his middle-of-the-night jog across the top of the museum building, chasing after the culprit. Finally, the roof came to an end, the culprit caught between him on the roof, the other ACME detectives inside, the distance to the ground and the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police surrounding the building. It was at that moment, as if summoned, that the clouds moved and the night's full moon was revealed to illuminate the rooftop.

"Carmen!" Zack exclaimed in shock at seeing someone he thought was dead, whose body he had thought he'd seen put into the ground; but he froze as he realised that while it was definately her hat, both the hair and the coat worn by the moonlight-silhouetted figure were too short to be those of Carmen Sandiego. Then she turned towards him and Zack's heart sank.

Ivy pulled the brim of the hat down low and smiled, "Catch me if you can, little bro."

Almost as soon as she had spoke, a helicopter cut through the clouds and, hovering over the rooftop, dropped a rope ladder that Ivy calmly stepped onto the bottom rung and took hold of the side ropes just before it lifted off, disappearing back into the clouds while Zack stood there, stunned.


End file.
